national curriculum

The first few weeks of a new school year usually involves both looking forward and looking back. The summer of 2016 saw an almost completely new set of national assessment and accountability arrangements and schools are analysing how they’ve done and pondering the implications for the years ahead. We don’t have all the results yet […]

In a previous blog post, I summarised the criteria of the two school accountability measures that will be used in 2016 – for floor standards and for ‘coasting schools’. For most schools, the main implication of the new measures will be to place a greater emphasis on progress – the progress which every pupil makes during the […]

The removal of National Curriculum levels provides an opportunity the profession cannot afford to miss. We need to build teachers’ confidence in developing their own approaches to assessment that are focused on the needs of their pupils, tailored to the school’s curriculum and support really effective teaching. While moving away from a system of assessment […]

In a previous blog post, I summarised the criteria of the two school accountability measures that will be used in 2016 – for floor standards and for ‘coasting schools’. For most schools, the main implication of the new measures will be to place a greater emphasis on progress – the progress which every pupil makes during the […]

In May, Year 6 children will be assessed for the first time on the new curriculum in England. To save you time, we have taken a look at the new sample tests and frameworks and given some key pointers below. What’s in the test? The new Key Stage 2 English reading test comprises a reading booklet and a […]

This spring, for the first time, Year 2 children will sit a formal grammar, spelling and punctuation test. We’ve taken a look at the sample tests and test frameworks to see what’s in store for them (and for you). Paper 1: Spelling The spelling test takes 15 minutes, though this is not strictly timed. It consists of […]